The very thought of how long we have been given on this earth, most likely, visited each of us.
And the older we get, the more we think about it. These reflections, as a rule, are sad. Moreover, the thought is more frightening not about death, but about old age.
So you don't want to be helpless, sick, lonely, abandoned … They say that if it is impossible to change the course of things, then it is almost always in our power to change the attitude towards them.
By the way, how old must a person be for us to call him old?
Here a child says about his teacher: "She is elderly, she is 32 years old."
But the famous actress of seventy-four years old declares that she still has no idea what old age is, let them ask someone older than her … In ancient Rome, for example, the average life expectancy was only about 25 years, and the biblical Adam, according to legend, lived 930 years, his ancestor Methuselah - 969 years, and we still use his name to refer to a very old person.
There is such a point of view that a person's age should be weighed against the age of domestic animals.
For example, dogs, cats are considered adults at two years old and live, on average, fourteen years.
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Accordingly, a person, becoming an adult at twenty, would have to live up to one hundred and forty years.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the oldest person on earth, whose age was documented, was "only" 122 years old.
So how many years can a person live? What does the duration of his life depend on?
Today in economically developed countries the average life expectancy is considered to be the age of 73-75 years, and women traditionally live longer than men.
But scientists-gerontologists call long-livers only those who have stepped over the ninety-year line.
That is, the majority do not live up to their biological "norm" for fifteen to twenty years.
Agree, this is a lot.
The science of gerontology (from the Greek geron - old man) was born in worries about extending a person's life, studying the reasons why a person is aging, looking for ways to extend our life.
A special "gene for longevity", however, has not yet been identified, but scientists believe that there are special genes for vitality that help the body to maintain strength and health.
Indeed, it is no coincidence that a large number of centenarians are noted in some specific areas. In addition, it has been established that centenarians who have many parents who have lived are much healthier than those who became the first centenarians in their family.
In general, centenarians live in various countries and parts of the world, but there are places on earth where, as scientists say, "their concentration is increased."
One of such world famous regions is the Caucasus and, in particular, Abkhazia.
Therefore, the interest of scientists from different countries to the Abkhaz people is natural: the peculiarities of their culture, way of life, traditions and customs.
The fact that longevity has always been a characteristic feature of the existence of the Abkhaz people is confirmed by the Abkhaz folk tales. They say that people used to live for several hundred years. Scientists note an interesting feature: it is the Abkhaz who are distinguished by longevity, and not the entire population of Abkhazia, which is rather motley in ethnic composition.
How can this be explained?
One of the reasons scientists believe is the adaptability to climate and natural conditions, developed by many generations.
Thus, people who have come to the Caucasus from other regions do not automatically acquire "Caucasian longevity", but will most likely live not much longer than their neighbors in their former place of residence. It is widely believed that the inhabitants of the mountains are distinguished by longevity. And although in our time the Abkhaz villages are located mainly at an altitude of 300-600 meters above sea level, there is reason to believe that in the past most of the Abkhaz lived in the highlands. Almost all Abkhazian villages are located quite far from the sea, about five kilometers. The clean, thin air of the highlands probably contributes to longevity.
Already today, conducting a comparative study of the health of long-livers of Abkhazia and Ukraine, gerontologists have found that the respiratory system works much better in the elderly and old people of Abkhazia and pulmonary diseases are much less common.
If the massive longevity of the Abkhaz cannot be explained only by favorable climatic and natural conditions, there must be other reasons.
For example, one of such reasons is called late marriages, which are traditional for Abkhazians, and, accordingly, late birth of children. There are numerous stories about the birth of children from 80-90-year olds and about 50-60-year-old mothers of babies.
Research by scientists has shown that Abkhaz men really rarely married before the age of 30.
For example, the long-livers of the village of Dzhgerda decided to part with the free life of a bachelor only by the age of 35-38.
The brides were, of course, younger, but it was also difficult to say about them “jumped out in marriage” at 24-29 years old (and this is the average age of women getting married), you must agree that a person is already able to maturely evaluate his actions. The families must have been such strong and reliable, and the children were welcome.
By the way, it was noticed that there are significantly more children in the families of long-livers, as well as in the families of their parents, than in "ordinary" families - 6-7. And, interestingly, long-livers men were usually born late, but not the last children in the family.
For example, where there are 9-10 children in the family, the sixth or seventh child-boy became a long-liver. In a family with four or five children, a boy born second or third was distinguished by longevity (only one of the surveyed centenarians turned out to be the firstborn, by the way, this family had only two children). As for girls, the first or second children usually became long-livers, sometimes the third and never later girls.
Based on scientific research by G. Morsov